The present invention is directed to racks for containing cards, and it is directed in particular to an arrangement for adjusting the depths of the compartments in the rack in which the cards are received.
The cards that are intended to be contained by card racks come in various sizes, and it is desirable that the card rack be sized to fit the card, both in card length and card width. It is convenient for one model of card rack to be adjustable to fit a wide range of card sizes, particularly from the point of view of the manufacturer, for whom plant and inventory costs are reduced if the number of separate models that he must produce is lowered. The adjustability is also somewhat desirable from the point of view of the user of the card rack because he need not dispose of his card rack if he begins using a different size card. Also, for companies that use a large number of card racks and different kinds of cards, there is some desirability from the standpoint of inventory costs in being required to keep only one model of card rack in stock.
In view of the desirability of the adjustable card racks, several have been suggested. One example is that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,981,019 to Baird, in which the depth of the card-rack compartments as well as their width can be adjusted. Width adjustability is provided by two halves, each containing one of the sidewalls, whose spacing can be adjusted by means of slots in overlapping back walls in the two halves. The depths of the compartments are adjusted by a rather complicated bracket arrangement in which the partitions of the compartments extend from a fixed position in the front face of the rack about which they can be pivoted toward a bracket adjustably mounted on the rear wall of the card rack. The partitions are received in the bracket, and as the bracket is raised and lowered, the amount of partition that is outside the bracket is varied. This varies the depth of the compartments.
A somewhat less complicated arrangement for varying compartment depth is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,691.664 to Stoian, in which front and back halves are provided whose front-to-back spacing is adjustable. Cooperating partition portions overlap and slide with respect to each other as the spacing between the front and back halves is varied. Although this arrangement is relatively simple, it will be shortly seen that is does leave some room for increased simplicity. Furthermore, the use of this arrangement for depth adjustment does not appear to be particularly well suited to the simultaneous provision of width adjustment.
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide depth adjustability in an exceedingly simple manner. It is a further object of the present invention to provide this in a card rack whose width can also be adjusted. It is still another object to afford these characteristics in a card rack that is easy to manufacture and use.